Your Body Map

If you find your vagina to be a vexing region, relax. Cosmo takes you on a guided tour below the belt to examine everything from the purpose of pubic hair to the science behind pleasure. Plus, we tell you what you must do to protect your sexual health.

Be honest: How much do you really know about what's going on down below? For all the attention we pay to our private parts, there's still so much mystery surrounding them. But understanding your anatomy is not only key to enhancing your pleasure, it's also essential to keeping yourself healthy. "If you know what your vaginal region normally looks like, you're more likely to recognize when something is wrong," says Kelly Shanahan, an ob/gyn in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. So what are you waiting for?

Grab your hand mirror and follow along as we explore one of the most fascinating parts of your body.

Virtual Body Map
Move your mouse over the red marked areas to get a guided tour down below.

If nothing appears on this page, you'll need to download the Flash plug-in for free at Macromedia.com.

If you do not wish to download the plug-in needed, click here for a low-tech version of Your Body Map.

This supersensitive organ is located just below your pubic bone, tucked inside the top portion of the inner lips of your vulva, or outer genitals. It's about three inches long, but the majority of it lies inside your body. The part you can see is a smooth pink gland about the size of a pencil eraser covered by a hood of skin. Amazingly, your clitoris contains an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 nerve endings -- about the same number as the penis. Its sole purpose? Sexual pleasure.

2. Pubic Hair

In prehistoric times, this patch of hair probably helped keep germs and dirt away from genitals, but now women usually wear underwear, which protects their privates, says Kimberly Mulvihill, a San Francisco ob/gyn.

3. Labia

The outer labia, or labia majora, are the fleshy flaps of skin that surround and protect your delicate inside parts: the inner lips (or labia minora, the puffy pink tissue), clitoris, and vagina.

4. Vagina

The walls of this approximately four-inch-long tube of muscle are so close together in a relaxed state that they almost touch. When sexually aroused, the walls widen by about three inches and grow two inches longer to allow for penetration. Postsex, your vagina returns to its original size and shape. (Even if your partner is well-endowed, it's unlikely he'll ever stretch you out.)

5. G-Spot

This quarter-size pleasure zone tucked between your pubic bone and cervix (outer end of your uterus) is full of blood vessels and spongy tissue. "When stimulated, the G-spot produces brain chemicals that block pain and induce pleasure," says Beverly Whipple, Ph.D., past president of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. Some women find that stimulating the G-spot can lead to an intense orgasm. To find the right spot, have your partner insert his finger into your vagina and crook it into a "come here" position and motion. At first, the pressure may make you feel like you have to urinate, but wait 10 seconds -- many women say intensely pleasurable sensations will quickly follow.